republicans, if you look at the polls are in the 20s right now, president obama is sitting in the mid 50s on the fiscal cliff. they don't want to give up things. they don't want to give up cuts to medicare or social security in order to get a deal that may not be best for them. if you look at game theory, you know, economic and political game theory, if all the players understand the strategies of the other players and act rationally, sometimes they won't move off the strategy that they are on. >> should americans have optimist about this 3:00 meeting this afternoon at the white house or basically it's humpty-dumpty, we're going off the wall, we're going to break, but we can be put back together. >> it doesn't mean they won't get an agreement on the phone, but i don't remember any high-plo file white house meeting producing anything other than leaked stories about how one leader told the other leader how tough he is and how weak the other guy is. these are, generally speaking made for optics, so we talk about it. >>> jonathan allen, great to see you, thank for your time. >> my pleasur